Font’s Role in Visual Rhetoric

In rhetoric class, near the end of the year we discuss visual rhetoric. Students have spent most of the year studying ancient rhetoric, refining writing and speaking skills, and debating using a Lincoln-Douglas (values) style debate. They learned and practiced using the canons of rhetoric. They learned how to be persuasive with words and how body language can add or distract from the message. So taking all those skills they learned we then looked at visual rhetoric and how to use it effectively to get people’s attention and convey a message clearly. The students analyze letters, brochures, magazine covers and advertisements to see if the colors, the size of the lettering and the particular font used helped the speaker get across the message they wanted their audience to receive. After we looked at lots of examples, the students created a bumper sticker or poster using these principles.

Today we have numerous fonts on our computers, making it fun to find just the right one for each project. Check out this clever video that shows the formation of some of those fonts.